Query: recent personal debt figures?

[Diane Monaco]

At 06:34 PM 3/13/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Diane Monaco wrote:
>
>>Can someone possibly direct me to more recent "personal debt" (credit 
>>card, consumer/auto loans) figures for the US, which must be 1-2 trillion 
>>(US$) by now?  I believe I read a Fed brief/memo on personal debt some 
>>time ago, but after a search of the FRED database, only percentage values 
>>of one sort or another appeared. Regional time-series data on personal 
>>debt would also be useful.
>
>I don't think regional series exist, though you might be able to get them 
>out of the Survey of Consumer Finances raw data. Historical nonmortgage 
>debt is reported at <http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/hist/>. 
>The latest is about $1.7 trillion. You can get the whole picture via the 
>flow of funds accounts <http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/Z1/>. The 
>historical flow of funds data is voluminous and complex (I should say 
>"are," since the Fed treats data as plural), but if you're looking just 
>for recent numbers, get the latest release in PDF form.
>
>Doug

Thanks Doug -- I'm really impressed with the extent of your culture and 
economics/politics knowledge. And I must confess that you inspire me to 
continue with my studies/readings -- as an economist -- of the 
post-structuralist theorists and postmodern fiction writers in preparation 
for an interdisciplinary course on postmodernism that I teach and 
apparently will be teaching annually.  Some favorites so far: Jean-Francois 
Lyotard, Donna Haraway, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Toni 
Morrison, and Kathy Acker.  Most over-rated post-structuralist who 
continually expounds an obvious relationship between knowledge and power in 
a series of historical studies on institutions:  Michel Foucault.  Still 
undecided about Jean Baudrillard.  Thanks again.

Regards,

Diane